Snakeskins, lizard skins, alligator skins, and other reptile skins, have been popular for many years as a fabric, or fabric coating, for boots, shoes, wallets, luggage, and many other types of consumer items. When making these items, the skin is cut appropriately before or after it is applied to the object, and bonded with some type of adhesive. In all instances, however, the skin is cut in some fashion, and some type of adhesive or cement is required to make the skin bond to the underlying substrate.
Because the skin is always cut, there is always a need for some type of adhesive to bond it to the substrate. Although high-quality adhesives are available to achieve this purpose, nonetheless, the presence of the adhesive affects to a certain extent both the color and possibly even the texture of the skin, at least in the case of a snakeskin, which is rather thin and almost transparent.
In an ideal situation, the skin would bond to the substrate without any adhesive, which could be made possible by using an un-slit seamless snakeskin when it is inserted over an elongated object such as the shank of a pool cue.